F1 2021 USA GP Setup Guide

Our F1 2021 USA Setup Guide

Next up in our F1 2021 car setup guides is our USA setup. And this is a favourite track of both Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo, and for good reason. The Circuit of the Americas is extremely fun to drive, and it’s a track that is always going to require a compromised car setup.

The first sector is fast and flowing and requires both bravery and a very balanced car. Then you have the huge long straight of the middle sector. And finally, the last sector is tight, twisty and technical.

But when you hook it up just right, this is a track that is extremely fun to drive and very fun to race around. However, the AI always goes strong around here, so you need to be on top of your game, and that all starts with a great car setup.

So with that in mind, let’s jump into the setup and have a look and see what we’ve got.

Aerodynamic setup

Starting with the aero I’ve done something a little bit different compared to most of our F1 2021 setups. I’ve gone with a higher front wing aero of 8 and a lower rear wing area of 7.

This is primarily because you need a good front end for that last sector otherwise, you’re going to understeer horribly. Essentially, if you can point your car in the right direction and get the front turned in, the rear will follow and not cause you too much trouble.

This allows us to run a slightly lower rear wing angle, without too much worry about oversteer moments or loose rear ends. During my testing, I did run slightly higher wings of 9 and 8, which allow for slightly better turning and more stability.

But this did hamper me down the long straights meaning it would be tricky to overtake during the race. So 8 and 7 was a better option here.

Transmission setup

For the transmission setup, I’ve gone with a reasonably balanced on-throttle differential.

A lot of time trial setups have the on-throttle differential very high. I found lowering it down to around 77% helps with acceleration out of the slower corners without too much loss of traction.

We can’t run it too low though otherwise, we will hamper our acceleration through and out of the faster corners.

And then go with the usual low off-throttle diff around 57% to help rotate the car into the slower corners.

Suspension geometry setup

Then the suspension geometry follows a similar setup style to most of our other F1 2021 setups. With high front camber, medium to low rear camber and then low to minimal toe.

So go with -2.6 and -1.6 on the camber, and then 0.07 and 0.2 on the toe.

This is designed for both stability, responsiveness and help with long tyre life during the race.

Suspension setup

For the suspension, I’ve gone with a soft suspension setup again, which is pretty common for most of our F1 2021 setups.

This will help the car ride over the kerbs, especially through the first sector where you’ve got the really fast Maggots, Becketts, Chapel style complex as you’ll be driving right over those kerbs.

So go with 1 and 3 on the suspension setup. And then for the anti-roll bars again I’ve gone with a stiffer front anti-roll bar and a softer rear at 6 and 2.

This is completely different to all of the time trial setups that you’ll find at the top of the leaderboard. However, having a stiffer front anti-roll bar will really help with stability through the race. Which is crucial for putting in solid, consistent lap times.

And then go the ride height of 3 and 7 which again helps with overall stability.

Brake setup

For the brakes go with our usual 97% brake pressure and then 57% on the brake bias. This gives us a nice balanced setup that performs well throughout the lap.

Tyre Pressure setup

I’ve gone with high pressures of 22.6 on both fronts and 23.1 on both rears. The lower front high pressures will help soften the car over the bumps and the higher rear tire pressures will help with stability.

Overview

And that will do it for F1 2021 USA car setup. As I mentioned at the beginning, any car setup will be a compromise around here.

I’ve prioritized the fast first sector and sacrificed ever so slightly on that last slower technical sector by running slightly lower downforce. As for me this produced the best overall lap time and helped me compete down the long straights for overtakes by running a lower downforce setup.

If you like this F1 2021 USA setup guide, and if it helps you out or you enjoy the setup drop the video below a like, and leave us a comment below to let me know how you get on.

View all of our most recent F1 2021 setups, by visiting our F1 2021 car setups page.

See you on track guys.

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F1 2021 USA Setup Guide Video